DELAWARE COUNTY, Indiana — A 29-year-old woman is dead after a suspected drunk driver hit her while she was on a golf cart early Wednesday morning.
The Delaware County Sheriff's Office said dispatchers received a call reporting a "possible security concern" on County Road 550 South, just east of U.S. 35, on July 31 around 2:45 a.m.
Police said the initial report indicated that a caller saw someone pushing a small vehicle and then heard a loud bang. Officers soon discovered that an early 2000s Dodge Ram 2500 crashed into a golf cart and a female pedestrian.
The incident happened when two women and one man were riding in the golf cart. The golf cart malfunctioned, so the 38-year-old man went to get his truck so he could tow it. When the man returned, police said he was driving "at a high rate of speed" and ended up hitting the golf cart and one of the women before driving his truck off the road 100 yards into a field and stopping.
(NOTE: 13News has a policy not to name suspects until formal charges are filed by a prosecutor).
Officers said the woman who was hit, identified as 29-year-old Lyn Cedras of New Castle, died at the scene.
Pieces of the golf cart Cedras was pushing before she died can be seen between stalks of corn that now lie flat.
"Twenty-nine years old and dies for what? You know, it's just unreal. It really is," said Tammy Tarr, who lives down the street from where the crash occurred.
The Delaware County Sheriff's Office says the driver who hit and killed Cedras had a blood alcohol content of .15 and was going between 70 and 80 mph in a 30 mph speed zone. He was arrested on a preliminary charge of operating while intoxicated.
"I thought it was around 2:30 and it sounded to me like the truck was burning out and I went back to sleep and she heard a huge burn and the truck burning out again. Then I come out and look this way and the cops had all this blocked off. Tow trucks, two trucks. A tire in the middle of the road," said Tarr.
The crash scene, spanned yards and several feet into the cornfield, where a pair of shoes sat.
"I don't know if he was trying to get out of the field or what. I mean, you can see, he just went flying through the field and to the left. I'm afraid if he kept going, he kept going instead of turning left, he would've came into our house," said Tarr.
The sheriff's office said the Delaware County prosecutor will determine if more charges will be filed against the driver. 13News stopped by the prosecutor's office, but was told he was on vacation.